The Kingsport Police Department was recently contacted by a local entrepreneur and small business owner with a very generous offer. Russ Hubbard, President and Founder of Per Vivo Labs, offered to donate a unique dog training aid that he had recently developed to the K.P.D. K-9 Unit.

The training aid in question goes by the trade name Odor Trace and is known as a Mixed Odor Delivery Device, or MODD for short. The MODD was initially designed to mix the various odors of modern homemade improvised explosives for bomb detection K-9 training purposes, without actually mixing the chemical components themselves.

Keeping the chemical components physically separate and combining only the odors makes for a much safer training aid that is much less volatile and therefore much less prone to tragedy that could occur from an unintended detonation of an explosive training aid. The MODD is expected to sell in the neighborhood of $500.

As a United States Military veteran, Hubbard knows quite well the results of such an accident. He served in the U.S. Army from 2005-2012. In 2010, he was fortunately able to walk away relatively unscathed when a truck in which he was riding hit a roadside I.E.D. (Improvised Explosive Device). However, shortly after he left the military, the unit to which he was previously assigned lost some individuals after an explosive K-9 training aid unexpectedly detonated.

This is not the first product that Hubbard has developed that has direct ties to his former military service. Another of his products that goes by the trade name Polar Skin, was developed for the treatment of heat stroke and was initially designed for soldiers working in the extreme temperatures of the Middle East. Since its initial success with the military, Polar Skin has also found favor with civilian firefighters, smoke jumpers, law enforcement personnel, and athletes.

Hubbard is a graduate of Dobyns-Bennett High School and West Virginia University. Per Vivo Labs is located at 2042 Brookside Lane in Kingsport. Their current customer list includes the United States Department of Defense, other federal, state, and local government agencies, some private entities, and a few foreign governments.

The Kingsport Police Department would like to take this opportunity to sincerely thank Mr. Hubbard for his service and for this generous donation that he has made to our K-9 Unit.

For additional information about Per Vivo Labs, please visit the following links:

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